


Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

by waterofthemoon



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Christmas, Community: spn_j2_xmas, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, M/M, One Shot, Romance, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-24
Updated: 2011-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-28 01:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterofthemoon/pseuds/waterofthemoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen needs to take someone home for Christmas so his mom will quit bugging him. As for Jared? He's probably a masochist for agreeing to this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aythia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aythia/gifts).



> Continuing my tradition of getting this challenge in at the last minute, this was written for **[aythia](http://aythia.livejournal.com/profile)** for **[spn_j2_xmas](http://spn-j2-xmas.livejournal.com/profile)**! She said she liked college AU and people pretending to be each other's boyfriends, and it just so happens that I like those things, too. :D Betaed by **[clex_monkie89](http://clex-monkie89.livejournal.com/profile)** , who is awesome and loves me even when I wake her up at dark-thirty to ask for my beta notes. ♥

When Jared agreed to pretend to be Jensen's boyfriend so that Jensen's mom would stop trying to make Jensen date Chad, he never thought he'd end up as deep in it as he is. The whole Chad element really should have tipped him off.

"So tell me about yourself, Jared." Jensen's mom looks at him expectantly. It's a few days before Christmas, and Jared's sitting on Jensen's parents' couch, in Jensen's parents' house, wondering how he got here.

"Yes, ma'am," Jared says. The snowpeople family on the coffee table is watching him. He tries to ignore their judging stares as he talks. "I'm an engineering major with a minor in English—that's for my momma, she teaches English—and I'm from San Antonio." He hesitates before saying the next thing, afraid that Jensen will hear what he really means. "And I really like Jensen."

Mrs. Ackles laughs. "Well, I hope so." She takes a sip of her coffee and gestures at Jensen. "Jensen's never brought another boy home before, you know. I keep telling him to invite that nice Chad Murray from his fraternity, but he won't listen to me, of course."

Jensen groans. "Mom, stop. I don't want to date Chad. Plus, he's my brother, sort of. It would be weird."

He gives Jared a pleading look, so Jared jumps in. "If it helps, Mrs. Ackles, I'm actually a friend of Chad's." Jensen gives him another look, this time like _what are you doing_ , but Jared's awesome. He knows exactly what he's doing. "And I happen to know that he's actually straight. One hundred percent."

It's not a lie, either—he's not crude about it, but Chad's the kind of guy who declares his love for women loudly for anyone who will listen. Jared's starting to think he's trying to overcompensate for something.

"Oh." Jensen's mom pouts a little. Jared's not sure whether to feel insulted or not, given the circumstances. "Well, that's a shame. He's such a nice boy. So _creative_."

"Oh, he is," Jared assures her. It's mostly true. "He's just not into guys."

"See, mom?" Jensen says. "I've been trying to tell you." He pats Jared's knee, and Jared can feel Jensen tense up. "Besides. I'm with Jared."

Mrs. Ackles brightens. "That's true! Jared, I hope I haven't made you feel unwelcome. Any friend of Jensen's—"

"Boyfriend, actually," Jared can't help but point out.

"Any boyfriend of my son is welcome in this house," she says firmly. Jared remembers Jensen telling him about how his parents didn't take it too well when he first came out. He guesses this is them coming around. "Do you think your parents would let you stay through Christmas?"

*

"That was _awesome_ ," Jensen says once they're alone in the hallway. "I bet she never bugs me about Chad ever again. Best. Friend. _Ever_."

"No, best fake _boy_ friend ever." Jared leans in like he's going to kiss Jensen's cheek, and Jensen, predictably, shoves him away, grinning his stupid Jensen grin. Jared sighs.

"You're totally loving this, aren't you?" Jensen says. "Dork."

Jared nods. "Totally. I love pretending to be fucking my friends and having to tell my mom I won't be home for Christmas." In Jensen's case, it's truer than he wants to let on—the first part, at least.

"We'll go to your house next year," Jensen says. "But be prepared to have our parents planning our gay wedding by then. Oh, look, here's your room." He pushes the door open magnanimously to reveal a smallish room with a bed and a cot set up next to it. Both the bed and the cot are made up with Christmas sheets.

Jared pushes at Jensen so that he doesn't have to think about _next year_. "Now who's the dork?"

*

Jensen's family is the kind that gets really, really into Christmas. There are decorations everywhere, from the kitchen to the living room to the bathroom, where a jet skiing Santa in Bermuda shorts totally watches him pee—even the back porch, where Jared goes to escape, has holly and ivy wound with lights around the railing.

"I know. It's a lot, right?"

Jared doesn't jump when he hears Jensen's voice behind him, but it's a close call. "Hey, what's up, man?"

"Just came to see if you were doing okay." Jensen comes to stand beside him, their shoulders brushing. For just a second, it's easy to pretend.

"It's weirder than I thought it would be," Jared admits. "One of your lesbian aunts came up to me earlier and told me that she was proud of me. I guess some asshole told her I'm gay and dating her nephew."

"Heh." Jensen bumps shoulders with him. "But it could be a lot worse, right?"

Jared smiles. "Yeah. It could be a lot worse."

*

The thing about pretending to be Jensen's boyfriend is that they have to keep up the façade all the time when they're around Jensen's family, which is most of the time, now that everyone's staying at the house for Christmas—another concept that's completely foreign to Jared. Jared's mom likes having Christmas quietly at home, just the immediate family, and then going out to see the relatives.

So Jared suddenly finds Jensen insinuating himself next to him on the couch and getting him drinks when he gets one for himself, and in return, Jared tries to charm the hell out of Jensen's family and not completely freak out or develop an obvious hard on when Jensen snuggles against his side.

Jensen's mom, thank everything, has the good sense not to put mistletoe up where people might inadvertently might walk under it with other people they would really like to kiss. However, Mackenzie seems to share Jensen's mischievous streak, so it only takes two days before Jared finds himself trapped under a plastic sprig of mistletoe with Jensen.

Jensen shrugs, smiling slightly. "Looks like we're caught." He jerks his head to indicate their audience, which happens to include Jensen's grandma, his brother, and one of the cousins, who keeps looking at him like she wants to take naked pictures of him while he's sleeping and post them on Facebook. Awesome.

"Looks like." Jared's sure he's blushing, but before he can do anything sensible, like running away, Jensen leans up on his toes and kisses Jared lightly on the cheek.

Well. That's interesting.

*

Christmas dinner is kind of awkward.

Jared's seated between Jensen and Scott, Mackenzie's current boyfriend. He's a pretty emo-looking kid who seems about as uncomfortable as Jared feels, and he keeps looking at Jared like he wants them to be in solidarity against the crazy Ackleses or something. Jared actually feels bad for the kid—if he can't hack it, he probably won't last much longer as Mackenzie's boyfriend—and hopes they can both just get through this.

He hasn't really talked to Jensen since the Mistletoe Incident, which is starting to take on capital letters in Jared's head. Jensen got dragged into last minute gift wrapping, and Jared went outside with Josh and some of the cousins to play touch football—he's not ashamed to say that the girls' team won—and it's just, whatever. Jensen doesn't look like _he's_ a basket case over nothing.

"Great food, mom," Josh says between bites. "Really excellent."

Jared nods, grateful to have another topic to think about. "Thanks for having me, Mrs. Ackles. These potatoes are, like, the best thing I've ever had in my mouth."

Jensen chokes, and Mackenzie snickers into her ham, but Jensen's mom doesn't seem to notice. "Oh, it's not a problem at all, dear." She levels a meaningful look at Jensen. "You can bring this one back any time you want. I like him."

Jensen takes a long sip of his wine; he looks like he needs it. "Do we have to talk about this now? Can't we talk about—" He casts a pleading glance around the table, but no one chimes in. "I don't know. Someone else?"

"I'm just saying," Mrs. Ackles says. "Jared's always welcome if he wants to come back."

"Of course he wants to come back," Jensen's dad says. Jared hasn't seen much of him—his dad works strange hours, Jensen told him—and he's kind of intimidated now.

"You guys have a great family?" Jared tries. Around him, everyone is either watching like this is the most exciting thing that's happened all year or pretending not to watch while eating. Josh's wife is even whispering into his ear. Fantastic.

Jensen's dad laughs. "Jared, I like you." He points his fork at Jared, and Jared tries not to flinch. "Have you thought about what your intentions towards my son are?"

" _Dad_ ," Jensen hisses.

Jensen's aunt—one of the non-lesbian ones—frowns. "Alan, let the poor boy eat."

Jensen's dad waves her off. "No, Judy, I want to hear what he has to say."

Jared takes another bite of his potatoes as he considers his options. No one's even pretending to not be fascinated now, so running for the hills is, sadly, not an option. "I really like Jensen," he says carefully once he's finished chewing. "We have a lot in common. He makes me laugh? And he has a good heart."

Now that he's started, it's like he can't stop. "And I know he spends too much money on coffee—no, stop it, you totally do," Jared adds when Jensen looks like he's going to protest for the hundredth time that six dollar lattes are an absolute necessity. "And I know he likes weird old movies and weird old video games and thinks that the best thing he did in his classes this semester was learning how TV cameras are put together. But that's all okay because I like those things, too. I like everything about him."

He glances over at Jensen, whose ears are all pink now, and lets some of his feelings show on his face. "I swear, I would never do anything to hurt Jensen. That's the truth."

Jensen's dad seems satisfied with that, and he nods in approval, so Jared can breathe again, kind of. He still can't really meet Jensen's eyes, but dinner continues with only the usual amount of family shenanigans—the kids start a pea flinging contest over at their table, a political argument breaks out between Jensen's uncles, and Mackenzie accidentally plays footsie with him while trying to aim for Scott. Overall, it's not a bad night.

After dinner, Josh's wife—Allie, Jared remembers—pulls him aside. "He was like that with us, too. You get used to it. Or he gets used to you." She winks at him. "Stick with it, okay? I want to see you here next year."

*

Later that night, after everyone's gone to bed or heading that way, Jensen pops his head into the room Jared's sharing with Scott. "Hey, come here for a second. I want to show you something."

Scott raises his eyebrows and gives them a knowing look, and Jared can feel himself blushing. "What's up?" he manages.

"Just come here." Jensen leads him into the living room, which is still lit up by the huge, glittering Christmas tree. It's beautiful. Jensen is beautiful.

"I used to do this all the time when I was a kid." Jensen sits down on the step that leads into the living room, and Jared sits next to him, their shoulders and thighs touching. This time, it doesn't feel as much like pretending. "Just come in here and look at the tree. Wait for Santa to come, that kind of thing."

Jared smiles. "Hey, you never know. I think I hear jingle bells on the roof."

"You're ridiculous." There's fondness in Jensen's voice, and Jared _hopes_. Then Jensen turns his head, a look on his face that Jared's never seen before. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Jared says, hoping against everything that Jensen's asking what Jared thinks he's asking, and then their mouths meet in a slow, sweet kiss that takes Jared off guard as much as it feels inevitable.

They break apart for air, and Jared can't stop grinning. "I guess we can stop lying to your family now."

*

"Hey, Mom, merry Christmas," Jared says into the phone. "I kind of have a boyfriend now."

In his other hand, he twirls the pocket knife Jensen got him—blade closed, he's not an idiot. "What? No, we weren't already together. Yeah, hang on a second. Jensen!"

Jensen wanders in, still in the t-shirt and red and green plaid pajama pants he slept in. His hair is all messed up, and it's a cliché, but Jared has trouble breathing all the same. "What?"

Jared hands him the phone. "My mom wants to talk to you. Just agree to whatever she says."

"I heard that, Jared Padalecki," his mom says.

"Sorry, Mom. Here's Jensen." Jared passes the phone to Jensen, who looks appropriately wary. It's not Jared's fault that his mom is so awesomely intimidating.

"Good morning, Mrs. Padalecki," Jensen says. "Merry Christmas to you, too." He listens for a minute. "I'll have to check—no, of course we'll be there. Looking forward to it. You, too. Okay. See you then."

Jensen hangs up the phone and tosses it over to Jared, who catches it. He smiles a little, this private smile that's just for Jared, and Jared wonders how he ever missed seeing it on Jensen's face before. "Looks like we're going to San Antonio for New Year's."


End file.
